


The Key to All Mythologies

by LaMaupin



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Mostly Pre-Canon, like 2/3 pre-canon and 1/3 of the canon timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-22 20:42:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7453273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaMaupin/pseuds/LaMaupin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You’re really good at pretending that the monsters don’t exist. It’s a lesson you learn early, when they take Wynonna away and all you're left with are sad and pitying looks. </p><p>But you never forget that your birthright is a gun and seventy-seven undead outlaws. Nor do you forget that Wynonna was the only member of your family who ever gave a damn about you, and they took her away for telling the truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Key to All Mythologies

**Author's Note:**

> A warning for an instance of some mild homophobia

You’re really good at pretending that the monsters don’t exist. It’s a lesson you learn early, when they take Wynonna away and all you’re left with are sad and pitying looks. 

But you never forget that your birthright is a gun and seventy-seven undead outlaws. Nor do you forget that Wynonna was the only member of your family who ever gave a damn about you, and they took her away for telling the truth.

So you pretend. You pretend that the monsters don’t exist. And that your sister is crazy. And that you are normal. 

But the thing about pretending is that after a while it starts to feel true. 

*

Wynonna only talks to you about it twice.

The first time is right after she gets out of the facility. Gus brings you with when she goes to pick her up and sign the papers. 

It’s the first time you’ve seen her since they took her away, and she hugs you, pulling you close like she used to do whenever Daddy was drunk and yelling at ghosts. She tells you she loves you and she makes you promise never to tell anyone what really happened. 

She doesn’t need to. You’ve already learned that lesson.

But you promise and they take her away again and you resolve to be normal. To be the good kid who doesn’t give anyone any trouble. 

The second time is when you’re twelve, right before she skips town for the first time. 

She tries to be in your life. To be your big sister. To protect you. But you can see the toll it takes on her. The pain of seeing you get to have the normal childhood she’s been denied. 

So you’re not surprised when she shows up on your porch the night after her high school graduation to tell you she’s leaving. You beg her to stay, but she says that she’s doing it for you. To give you a chance. 

A part of you thinks she’s right. Maybe if she’s not around you’ll finally get to be Waverly, and not just the youngest Earp, forever in your sister’s shadow. 

You hate yourself for even thinking it. 

And there in the dark outside of the house that feels more like a home to you than the homestead ever did, she asks you if it really happened. If the monsters really exist, or if she’s really crazy like everyone says.

She looks at you with such sadness that your heart breaks for her. For the relationship you could have had. For the girl she had been. 

In that moment you resolve to be the one to break the curse. Because Wynonna had always been the best of them, and it had taken everything from her.

*

You never forget who you are or what you’re doing, but after a while, the life that you’ve built for them starts to feel more real than what you know to be true. 

Normalcy becomes your armor. The smile-and-wave your weapon. It puts people at ease when they remember who you are and what your name is. 

Stephanie and Chrissy and even Champ are all part of the facade that you build around yourself to convince the town that you’re not just another tragic Earp sibling. Another casualty of a troubled family. And maybe, if you start to convince yourself of that too, it’s not such a bad thing.

It’s easier to be Champ’s girlfriend than Wynonna’s sister, and even though you’re ashamed to admit it, you like the way that people start to look at you with fondness rather than pity. 

But you can never get too comfortable, because as soon as you start to think that maybe your life is exactly what you need it to be, Wynonna will storm back into town, and it all comes rushing back. 

She’s a hurricane, upending your life for days, sometimes weeks, at a time, and then blowing out of town, leaving you to rebuild. You love her, and you’re always happy to see her, but after a while you get tired of what she brings with her. The memories and the looks and the pity. 

It’s almost a relief, after a particularly turbulent visit when you’re eighteen, when she tells you she’s not going to be back for a while. She’s going to Europe and she doesn’t know if or when she’ll be back. Almost.

That old familiar sadness is back in her eyes and you remember the promise you made to yourself when you were twelve. You can’t fix what the town has done to your sister, but you sure as hell can face the monsters head on and break the curse. 

*

Curtis and Gus and Wynonna are the only people who have ever been able to see past your charade, and for the most part you’re fine with that. It means that when you start researching the curse no one notices. 

Except for Curtis, who tells you that you’re meant for bigger things than this town and suggests that you go to college in the city. You wish you could, but you know you can’t leave Purgatory, as much as you may want to. 

You’re the only person left who knows the truth about this place. About your birthright. So you stand watch over the town, hoping that if only you can learn enough you can be the last person to sacrifice your life to the Earp curse.

You’re not quite sure when your life stops feeling like it fits, but you start to get restless. You start to feel the weight of the life you’ve spent so long building. 

There’s always been a dissonance in your life. Between who you know yourself to be and who the town has forced you to become. For a long time you embraced the normal, the pretend version of yourself that everyone likes. The Waverly that the town adores, who’s never angry, never resentful, who never reminds people of the sad past and the crazy sister. 

But the more you learn about your family, about Wyatt and his demons and all the Earps past, the louder the dissonance becomes. The harder it gets to be able to lay in bed next to Champ or tend bar at Shorty’s and pretend that this is what you want. The more you want to be seen.

Your friends want to go dancing in the city, and you jump at the chance to leave everything behind, even if it’s only for a night. 

Chrissy suggests a gay club she’s heard about and you end up dancing there until nearly bar time. It feels good to forget your life for a couple of hours, and you would have stayed all night if you could have. It feels like the first time in forever that you’ve had genuine fun. Your life is a lot of things, but fun is rarely one of them.

Afterwards, you’re flush and happy and even Stephanie’s complaints about not being hit on enough don’t bring you down. Chrissy laughs and asks what Stephanie was expecting, it is a gay club after all. Stephanie grumbles and says that she’s upset only dykes hit on her.

Your mood comes crashing down. There’s something about the way that she says it that lodges beneath your ribs, swelling up into anxiety that settles in your stomach. It feels more like a personal attack than it should. 

You spend the rest of drive home in silence, wondering why you care. 

You chalk it up to the feeling like you don’t quite fit with your friends. More evidence that your old life isn’t enough anymore. The same reason that Champ is starting to feel more like an anchor than an escape.

A part of you wonders if you’re lying to yourself, but you have too many scary truths in your life already. No need to add any more. 

*

You can’t bring yourself to go to Curtis’ funeral. 

You hate yourself for it, because he’s more of a father to you than your dad ever was, but you’ve lost too much family already. You can’t stand to see another person you love put in the ground. 

Gus understands, hugging you close and telling you it’s okay. You wish you could believe her. 

You spend the morning hunched over your research, distracting yourself with the historical record, trying not to think about how Curtis had encouraged you without ever questioning why you care so much. 

You’re rereading one of Wyatt’s letters to his brother when it hits you that today is Wynonna’s twenty-seventh birthday. You wonder where she is, and if she even cares about the curse anymore. 

*

Wynonna’s back in town and it’s like the past three years didn’t happen. The old resentments well up, and you’re not sure who you hate more, yourself or your sister. 

But something’s different this time. Maybe it’s that she’s the heir now, officially, or maybe it’s all the mysterious strangers in town, but you feel like things are about to happen. Like you’re on the edge of a cliff and you’re about to jump. 

For the first time in your life it feels like Wynonna can’t see you for who you are. All she sees is the sister with a chance for a normal life. 

You can’t blame her, not really. Because sometimes you do such a good job pretending that you’re normal that you believe it too.

She thinks she’s protecting you. She always has. But you know better. You know that she needs more protecting than you do. 

*

And then you meet Nicole. 

You’re stewing about Wynonna shutting you out again when she walks into your bar, all cowboy hat and swagger. 

You’ve seen it before, there’s no shortage of guys who think they’re the second coming of Wyatt Earp in this town, but there’s something about her that’s different. She has you off balance, unsure and anxious in the face of what you have to admit is pretty shameless flirting. And you’re a small town bartender, you can handle flirting.

It feels like she sees right through you. Like she’s not fooled by your friendly smile. Like she knows you’re anything but normal. And it terrifies you. 

She scares you, and you’re not sure why, but you are sure that you want to find out. 

*

Your life feels like it’s accelerating. Towards what, you don’t know, but things are happening faster than they ever have before. 

Part of you loves it, because this is what you’ve been waiting for your entire life. To prove that you’re more than just a small town barmaid. That you’re worthy of the Earp name.

Part of you hates it, because it should be you with the gun and the badge, sending the monsters back to hell.

Before Curtis is even cold, Shorty joins him in the ground. That’s more death than you’ve seen since you were six years old, but you barely have time to mourn before there’s always another monster to deal with.

Everything’s happening so fast. You leave Champ behind. He never could keep up with you. You stop pretending you’re not a freak. You don’t even blink when Curtis leaves you a skull and Stephanie dies at the hands of an angry witch. 

And then there’s Nicole. Who makes time stop. Who doesn’t push or ask for anything more than you can give. Who sees you in ways that even your sister can’t seem to these days. 

When you think about her that familiar anxiety wells up in the pit of your stomach. You see death and demons every day and she scares you more than either. 

You’re sitting in Nicole’s car at the edge of town, cold and damp and annoyed, when you finally figure out why she scares you. 

Falling for her means shedding the last shred of normalcy you have left. It means admitting something about yourself that has nothing to do with the Earp curse. 

You’ve spent so much of your life pretending to be something you’re not that now you’re afraid to be who you are. 

Gus tells you to be honest, and you wonder if she can see you too. 

But you’ve never shied away from things that scared you. You’ve come face to face with demons and monsters and not even blinked. Surely you can handle Nicole. 

When you kiss her for the first time you feel free. Because you finally, finally don’t have to pretend.

**Author's Note:**

> You can pry the second person POV from my cold dead hands


End file.
